3 Simple Rituals for Your Lunar Return

After the sun finally gives up
the sky to the moon
and my children are dreaming

I sit in an empty, unlit room
soaking in the silky sounds
of silence. My body breathes again.

In this darkness, I am found.

~ Erin Kundrie ~

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While I cannot always tell you what day it is - either the name of the day or its date - I am often able to say how full or dark the Moon is.¹ This hasn't always been so. Connecting with a lunar-focused way of experiencing time while being raised within a solar-focused culture took time and effort, a reclamation of ancestral wisdom, and new understanding of time and space beyond strident, unending linear progress. My initial inspiration to reconnect to the Moon as an important and ancient way of knowing time and space came from the books I was reading as a young witch that spoke of the magick that could be done by moonlight and the lost Goddesses that could be found there. Sign me up, my little witch heart sang! Decades later I've come to know lunar time as an essential part of my ability to feel whole and holy - measuring my life by the Moon allows me to ebb and flow, to know that all things are changing and reforming, that growth requires the renewal of decay, that tides must come and go from the shore

Lunar time asks us to critically examine the impossible goal of eternal stasis and immortality set out by capitalism and kyriarchy, while instead connecting with the liberatory experience of ever-change, of inhale and exhalation, of deep relaxation after deep tension.

Celebrating my monthly lunar returns has been a more recent addition to my practice, but one that I've come to treasure. As I continue to write about lunar returns, I wanted to write about some of the very simple rituals you might choose to do to connect with the energetic ebb and flow of your lunar return (and if you haven't yet, read my introduction to lunar returns to understand what they're all about and why you might pay attention to them). I want to focus on rituals that aren't about too much self-analysis, focus on self-improvement or anything that moves us too far into our thinking mind and out of our feeling body.

image via @boothryan_

Our Moon sign represents a lot of interesting aspects of our life, but one of the most important ways our inner Moon helps us to understand ourselves is by illuminating the ways that we feel most comfortable and nourished in our lives. Of course, there is a usefulness to journal prompts and deep self-reflection to help you get to a place of knowing your needs around comfort and feeling emotionally supported, and these are tools I love, but sometimes we just need to tap into something more instinctual and intuitive rather than over-relying on the intellectual. Getting to a place of feeling intuitive and trusting your instincts is not an instantaneous process - not everyone, for example, was supported in their intuitive truths or had to develop instincts that may or may no longer serve us (i.e. an instinct driven by hypervigilance). So it can be really helpful to commit to a regular monthly practice where you engage in some simple ritual to help support your growth of healthy instincts and trust in your intuition, especially when timed to the empowering energy of your lunar return.

For me, a lunar return is not about manifesting the ability to be more productive. It's learning how to recognize your own needs versus the expectations of productivity culture. In a capitalist society like the United States, the expectations of productivity are limitless which conflicts with the finite resources of individuals, communities, and the planet we share. I think it's important to be cognizant and wary of the ways that we might slip productivity culture into our magickal, spiritual, and healing work. Endless striving for self-improvement can lead to self-care that feels increasingly laborious, joyless, performative, and isolating. This can ultimately muddy our intuition and make it difficult to develop instincts which support real resilience (i.e. resilience that sees rest as powerful and essential).²

Here's my encouragement for developing a lunar return ritual practice: strive for something which feels pleasurable, easy to do, and which feels like a benefit in your life. I know, those are broad descriptors of a practice and could mean many things to many people, but that's the point - what works for you is going to be unique to you. Make your practice enticing to you. Sometimes where the benefit of a practice shows up in your life isn't always the present moment, but the practice is benefitting future or past you. Present me doesn't always want to do my daily meditation practice but I never regret having shown up for my meditation practice once it's over. That's what I seek in any regular practice of mine - a practice that cultivates pleasure that surpasses time and space. Yes, showing up for my meditation or lunar return practice is beneficial to my present self, even if it might take effort in the moment, but it's also a gift to my future self that I'm grateful to receive.

Before any of these rituals you have all sorts of ways that you can prepare for them, but only if you feel like you have the time, energy, and inspiration to do so. Don't let the fear of not doing something "right" or "all the way" - whatever either of those things might mean - prevent you from showing up to the rituals that you want to practice. Can it be beautiful to set up an altar for your lunar return and take a shower or bath before a ritual? Yes! But if you don't have the extra energy or time to do those things, the path to your ritual is still one of beauty, and you don't need to do anything else before a ritual but show up. I rely a lot on breathwork before rituals to help me ground and center and begin to shift my consciousness from the busyness of everyday life to the time and space between where rituals take place. There will be time for elaborate rituals and preparations but do what you have the capacity to do now - it's all practice, all sacred. With that in mind here is a might-do list for before a ritual.

A Might-Do List to Prepare for a Ritual

Cleanse & bless your body

Cleanse & bless your space

Dress (or undress) in a way that inspires you

Build or re-energize your altar

Drink some tea

Practice some simple breathwork

image via @_k_arrin

The Lunar Return Rituals

In a previous post on the magick of your lunar return, I shared three tea recipes that I find useful for connecting with different aspects of your lunar return. They focused on the three themes of reflection, rebalancing, and reconnecting which I've used as a guide to create simple rituals to help you connect with whatever energy you're most curious about in your life at the time of your lunar return. If you feel called to, you can incorporate the corresponding teas with the rituals below and/or work with one or more of the plants throughout your lunar return cycle, but that's only if it feels like a pleasure to do.

Reflection: Sound Healing

Humans are noisy creatures, using sound and the felt vibration of that sound to communicate ideas, evoke different emotions, and create spaces of healing. I incorporate sound and sound therapy techniques into my own personal and community healing practice, and while I enjoy using the tools of sound therapy, one of our most powerful and uniquely attuned sound therapy tools is our own voice. Singing about and beneath the Moonlight is an ancient way of being human which is one of the reasons I think its a beautiful practice to incorporate into your lunar return rituals.

The healing qualities of sound are manifold, but when it comes to the lunar magick of reflection, sound acts like dropping a pebble into a still pound: the energy ripples out, new things come to the surface, and the shape of your current life is felt through the small waves coming to shore. I like to use a simple technique like humming or toning sacred words or syllables (i.e. such as galdr, ogham, bijas, and so on) but sometimes there is a simple song or chant from my spiritual tradition that I'm drawn to. It's not about being pitch perfect or sounding "good" but using sound as a way to explore your current energetic state and needs. I am guided by my own sense of what feels good to me and I encourage you to be guided by your own sense of feel good noise.

What is powerful about an audible or vibration based sound practice in reflection work is that often we feel a need to reflect because something doesn't feel seen, heard, and/or held in our lives. Through sound we begin to hear and/or feel our way home. 

I like to incorporate tea into this sound ritual, placing a bowl or teapot full of brewing herbs on my altar as I sing, drinking this sound infused tea as the ritual comes to an end. After any sort of ritual I try to pay special attention to dreams and sudden insights that come my way and this is especially true with sound work and the way it can stir up hidden depths.

Rebalancing: Breathwork

One of the simplest ways I find energetic balance in my life is through breathwork. Breathwork is a free and accessible form of healing, helping to address the underlying stress that can cause so much suffering in our lives. While I've created a short course on breathwork geared towards magickal folk, I've made sure that one of my favorite breathwork practices known as the tree of life is available for free.

While I practice some form of breathwork everyday, I like to set aside extra time and space to let myself sink into my breathwork practices on days like my lunar return. Sometimes I practice a slow tree of life meditation and other times I just begin to breathe deeply and let myself be guided by my breath to where I need to go.

I love incorporating tea into my breathwork practice, especially when I'm feeling distracted and discombobulated. I'll begin by holding my cup full of tea under my nose, letting the steam help to open my airways and carry precious volatile oils into my airways, and giving my mind something easy to focus on with the scent of the brew. 

A breathwork session can lead into other practices, such as divination, guided meditation, art, writing, and more, or it can just be a breathwork session. Being present to simple practices instead of always being in preparation for the next thing is a powerful way of grounding, centering, and rebalancing. 

image via @shisilya

Reconnecting: Movement

Using movement as a practice of reconnecting to what it is you have hidden away or lost sight of can help us find a sense of self as holy, as Land, and as beyond worthy.

How you move as an act of reconnection and calling yourself home is going to be dependent on you, your physical needs, and your own unique desires. The guideline I follow is that I can move in whatever way I want as long as it causes no harm to me or those around me - other than that I allow myself to move however I want. I try to be led by how my body wants to move instead of trying to move it and more often than not I don't incorporate any music - but that's just my preference, you figure out what works for you.

I think movement rituals are especially important when you've tried to think yourself back home and now you just need to feel it. We're not seeking wisdom through movement or specific guidance or answers (though sometimes one or more of those things become known through movement work), but we're seeking to move as an act of saying "I'm here, come home, I love you, let's take up space together."

Is ending a movement ritual with tea a very sweet and lovely thing to do? Yes, yes it is. I actually enjoy using movement as a practice of reconnecting to myself and my needs before situations where I know that I'll be outside of my comfort zone, and when I'm able to bring tea from the ritual along with me it feels like I'm carrying own confidence and comfort elixir.

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Reclaiming time during your lunar return for gentle intuitive magick remains a rebellious act. 

Through these simple ritual ideas I hope you're feeling inspired to explore how it is you might show up to your own lunar return if that is something you're called to do. And if you're feeling like you can't possibly add another thing to your life, don't worry, the Moon is already showing up for you.

If you're looking for more lunar-inspired wisdom, you've come to the right corner of the internet. Find my original post on finding your lunar return or you can explore my series on the healing rituals of the lunar phases. I can even help you discover your Moon sign and Lunar Mansion and understand your birth chart better. For those looking for a deeper dive, The Lunar Apothecary is my space for helping folks discover who they are as healers through Moon-centered herbalism and magick.

Blessings on your lunar journey and may you have many a magickal lunar return!

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤ Thanks, friends. ❤

Footnotes

(1) Though, before any of you think that this is some sort of holy moon priestess humblebrag, I can't always tell you what's happening with the Moon either, as sometimes the measuring of time and space in any terms is beyond my grasp and I'm just trying to make myself a cup of tea which does not require me to know much of anything beyond where the herbs are and successfully turning on the kettle.

(2) It's also not very fun, all this endless striving, and the Moon has long been a symbol of rebellion against conformity to any oppressive norms including social media driven "wellness" culture.

3 Herbal Recipes to Support Your Lunar Return

Every month the Moon returns to place in the sign that you were born in - known as a Lunar Return - and it can be an auspicious time to nourish your inner worlds. The Lunar Return is, in fact, just the Moon version of your Solar Return (also known as your birthday) or a Saturn Return, though the energy and meaning of a Lunar Return is different than either of those. I write a lot about the Moon because in astrology and western esoteric practice, it is through working with our inner Moon that we understand our consciousness and cultivate the insights needed to work as healers and bring healing into our relationships (I even created a whole course about it). Lunar-centered herbalism plays a special role in my practice as an herbalist whether it is observing the healing rituals of the different phases of the Moon, creating Moon-inspired baths, learning more about the magick of Moon signs in my herbal preparations or making teas for my Lunar Return.

With all the ways one can practice medicine and magick by the Moon, I find the energy of the Lunar Return to be something special, moving and changing each month, calling us to step into a more spiral understanding of time and our experience of it. Your Lunar Return can be many things, including a time of reflection, of rebalancing or of reconnecting with some part of yourself, and I wanted to share with you three simple herbal remedies that I use for my own Lunar Return practice that'll hopefully support your own.

About the Recipes

I try to write about herbs that are easily accessible within the traditional western herbalism repertoire, but I've also included the herbal action of each herb that I'm focusing on to help you choose alternative herbs based on your needs. You are strongly encouraged to adapt each recipe to make it your own. The recipe portions listed are estimations and can be easily adjusted to your own taste needs and you can add any variety of preferred flavorful herbs to your own mix. While the recipes below are written with tea in mind you can use them as herbal baths, tinctures, flower essence blends, topical herbal oils, and more. 

Deck shown is The Gentle Tarot by Mari in the Sky

Reflection Moon Tea

Sometimes our Lunar Return is calling us home again through gentle reflection and dreamwork. I love working with my dreams with greater intention around my Lunar Return and the Reflection Moon tea blend helps to do just that. The blend helps to quiet the mind so that we can explore what's going on beneath the surface for us while also stimulating the dreaming part of our psyche. Reflection Moon tea is also helpful when it comes to awakening our inherent psychic gifs.

Medicinally, Reflection Moon can be a useful blend during and in the time around your Lunar Return if you're menstruating (Mugwort is a uterine tonic and all herbs have pain relieving qualities), looking to alleviating general tension especially when accompanied by headaches, and to help with slow and sluggish digestion.

• 2 parts Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora): Nervine, sedative, and relaxant

• 1 part Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris): Relaxant and dream tonic

• 1 part part Rose (Rosa spp.): Heart tonic

Deck shown is The Illuminated Earth Oracle by Claire Mack

Rebalancing Moon Tea

Your Lunar Return can be a beautiful time to slow down and reassess what needs balancing in your life. Whether you're feeling run down and sluggish, want to support the start of a new cycle or firm up some energetic boundaries, the Rebalancing Moon blend is nutritive rich and restorative. If I'm experiencing decision and/or compassion fatigue it this blend or some variation of this blend that I typically reach for.

In addition to being a nutritive rich blend, Rebalancing Moon helps with digestion, helps with issues of circulation, strengthens the blood (i.e. can help to alleviate anemia), protects against seasonal allergies, and is an excellent blend for taking after recovering from a period of illness or stress.

• 2 parts Milky Oat (Avena sativa): Nervine and neurotonic

• 1 part Nettles (Urtica dioica): Nutritive, digestive, and whole body trophorestorative

• 1 part Spearmint (Mentha spicata): Digestive (carminative) and clears brain fog

Deck shown is the Heavenly Bodies Astrology Deck by Lily Ashwell

Reconnecting Moon Tea

Sometimes it can feel like we're searching for something lost or not quite remembered about ourselves. Or we've set aside practices we'd want to be doing, things we want to be learning, and people we want to connect with because of the busyness and stress of our life. Reconnecting Moon can help to calm our nervous system and nudge us back into communion with our desires. It's the blend I reach for if I'm feeling out of sorts with my practice and like I'm doing less and less of what I want to be doing in my life for whatever reasons. 

Medicinally, Reconnecting Moon is a lovely tonic for the brain and nervous system, helping to support the lines of communication between what we're feeling-thinking. It's a good tea to share with others to help support clear lines of communication and to soothe frazzled energy.

• 4 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis): Nootropic and nervine

• 1 part Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus): Nootropic and gentle nervous system stimulant

• ½ part Lavender (Lavandula officinalis):  Nervine and circulatory stimulant

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I hope that these recipes serve as a source of inspiration for your own practice. If you haven’t already, be sure to read my full post on what a Lunar Return is and why you might start observing it. For those of you who read tarot or oracle cards, I’ve written a tarot spread to support your lunar observations.

May you find what you’re looking for as you gaze into the mirror of the ever-changing Moon.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

The Moon Returns: A Lunar Return Tarot Spread

Last month I wrote about the magick of Lunar Returns, framing the practice of calculating and observing your monthly return of the Moon to the exact location it was in at your birth as act of rest and homecoming. As I shared in that post, I'd been wanting to write about Lunar Returns for a while, but waited until I had a bit more insight and feeling about the practice before doing so. One of the gate-openers for me to write about this particular aspect of Lunar magick was reading through Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community by Larry Yang.

It is a beautiful book and one that I'm recommending more and more alongside my longstanding recommendations of books like Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. While Yang is specifically speaking to the Buddhist community (and especially the one within North America that many white folks practice within), the wisdom and insights within his book are easily applicable to many spiritual communities. My own activism - both my personal roots and official trainings - have always been from a spiritual (mostly multi-faith) foundation, so I'm always looking for resources like Awakening Together. Yang's book is honest, welcoming, and encouraging while talking about difficult subjects like spiritual bypassing and what liberation for everyone actually looks like and asks of us.

Cards from The Pagan Otherworlds Tarot.

Part of why Yang's work inspired my post on Lunar Returns was because writing about astrology (and herbalism and magick) is my small attempt to expand the language in which we talk about our experience of self and the world beyond the limiting words and concepts so many of us were given. And that our revolutions need the tools of protest and agitation as well as the tools of softening and homecoming. I'm not proposing that protest and softening are on opposite ends of some arbitrary activism spectrum, but that it can be very easy, especially in our increasingly visual age, to value public works over instead of alongside private work. The energies of protests can burn quick and hot and we need that forge and fire to spark change. We also need the cooling and adaptable lunar energy which reflects to us the truth of change and our very real need to turn in before we strut out again. To value the ebb as much as we love the flow.

I'm so encouraged and humbled and in love with the work of so many activists and organizers, in all their myriad forms, that I'm basically trying to write love letter after letter to all of you, focusing on the wisdom of tending to your tenderness. Because tenderness is a fertile land for our hope. 

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From left to right: Marshmallow Marseille; Slow Holler Tarot; Thea’s Tarot

So here is another lunar-oriented love letter for all of you that is tied into the magick of Lunar Returns but can also be used for the Moon cycle in general. The Moon Returns tarot spread helps us to connect with the energies of our Lunar Return (or the monthly cycle of the Moon in general) illuminating where we might find places to rest and places to extend our energies. If you’re wanting to read this spread for your Lunar Return, be sure to read my tutorial first.

The Moon Returns is a simple three card spread that is meant to be cast monthly, helping us to both find deep meaning and honor the swift passage of the monthly Lunar Return or Moon cycle. There are plenty of ways to read the cards and practice divination in general, but eventually we are faced with developing the skill of interpreting time, its passage, and influence on us through our chosen divinatory medium. When working with Lunar Returns and the cycle of the Moon we learn to practice the infinite of our consciousness - its revelation, growth, decay, and renewal - within the embrace of the finite. In interpreting time and the weight of interpretation of each card within a Moon-centered spread we can explore how to hold meaning with an open hand passing through eddies of time rather than trying to hold the waters of wisdom in a closed fist. I guess what I’m trying to say is allow space for whatever comes through in the following spread to be both profound and passing.

Card 1 · The Moon Returns, I Return

This card illuminates some of the messages from the House that the Moon will be returning to. So, if your Lunar Return is happening in the Second House, this card might highlight issues of your emotional wellbeing as it is tied into your financial and material security and access. In other words, this card helps us to understand the overarching themes of our Lunar Return (or monthly Moon cycle if you're not reading for your Lunar Return). Since I also pay attention to the House of Cancer in a Lunar Returns I might pull two cards here - one to represent that House of the Lunar Return and another to represent the House of Cancer.

There are two alternative approaches to this card if you are not using this spread with your Lunar Return and just the monthly Moon cycle. You can choose to have this card represent the sign of the New or Full Moon. Another approach is If you have a bit of astrological know-how you can choose for this card to represent the House that the New or Full Moon will be in. 

Card 2 · The Moon Ebbs, I Ebb

This card helps us to see where we might need to pull back, pause or rest your energies during your Lunar Return (or Moon cycle in general). If a particularly challenging card shows up here it might be highlighting areas of your life that need extra love and care that you've been ignoring or pushing aside (we all do this, don't worry, be kind to yourself). A challenging card here can also help us to understand a place of stagnation we might be in from another perspective including seeking out additional community support and resources to help you manage a deep pause.

Card 3 · The Moon Flows, I Flow

This card helps us see where you might extend, stretch outward or fill out your energies during your Lunar Return (or Moon cycle in general). If a particularly challenging card shows up here it might be highlighting areas of your life that you've been overextending yourself for too long - which is easy to do with so many of us living unsupported in overproductive cultures. Challenging cards showing up here can also warn of burnout and the need to examine beyond this lunar cycle where you are extending your energies too far beyond what is sustainable for you.

Looking for more lunar inspiration? There are Moon spells, a tutorial on shadow work and the Lunar Mansions, Moon-inspired teas, and a whole year of New Moon healing magick. I am a decidedly Moon-oriented Witch and I'm happy to provide plenty of resources to connect with the sacred Moon in all sorts of ways.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Always Coming Home: An Introduction to Lunar Returns

There's an aspect of astrology that I've found to be super useful and magickally inspiring but don't find it talked about much. Of course, it should come at no surprise that it is a Moon-centered astrological practice as you are reading the blog of someone who likes the Moon very much. For me, I have learned more about myself, my needs, my boundaries, my magick, and my ability to show up to my calling through my work with the Moon more than any other aspect of astrology. As we are currently going through a global shift in culture, not only do I think that there are lunar lessons that can aid us in our journey towards a more just and more kind world, but I'm invested in making sure that we all have the tools and networks to continue to do the work and play and visioning that needs be done for generations to come. Observing and working with your Lunar Return is one way of tending to the needs of your inner world in a way that supports you and the resilience and wisdom you can hold sustainably in your outer work and relationships. So here is my offering to you - a look at what a Lunar Return is, why you might want to find yours and how to chart it, as well as inner world tools to help you nurture your emotional nature. 

While for many, exposure to astrology is through weekly horoscopes, much of astrology is often concerned with much longer expanses of time. When I began to study (mostly medical) astrology in earnest, I was intimidated by these long forecasts, especially when I came across remnants of the more fatalistic foundations of astrological practice that emphasized fatedness over the promises of growth, change, and freedom of movement. When I was working on The Lunar Apothecary, my online course which engages lunar-focused astrology and herbalism as a tool of self-discovery, I came across the practice of casting charts for Lunar Returns. I was deeply intrigued by the short span of time that a Lunar Return chart was reading for and how it aligned with my current devotional observation of the nearly month-long Moon cycle. But as I've come to practice more and more with Lunar Return charts I realized that it's actually a great practice to learn about the healing magick of transits (i.e. charting the path of the planets through your birth chart) for those a little beyond beginner astrology students.

So what is a Lunar Return? Every month the Moon returns to the location it was at when you were born and in astrology this is known as a Lunar Return. The chart of a Lunar Return can be read as a forecast of the month ahead (i.e. the time between the current Lunar Return and the next one). While reading or having your Lunar Return chart read can be a beautifully meditative practice, you don't need any special astrological skills to find and benefit from your monthly Lunar Return.

If you're brand new to the ideas of astroherbology and medical astrology, you might want to start over here first. If you want to figure out how to spot the Moon in your birth chart, I talk about that over here. I have written this post for someone who has basic understanding of western astrology, knows how to create a birth chart, and has some familiarity with what all the symbols and lines on that birth chart means. It's meant to be an introduction to Lunar Returns and not a complete study in the practice, but something to get you started. Be sure to check out my recommended resources at the end of this post for further information.

Below I'll tell you how to get your own free lunar return chart as well as basic interpretation focused on the House that your Lunar Return takes place in. I've written about the Moon and the Houses before in my simple guide to rest for each of the Moon signs, but I wanted to expand on that original post as well as make some general suggestions for how you might create magick and space in your life with your Lunar Return. Lunar-centered herbalism and astrology is one of my favorite forms of self-discovery and the cultivation of insight for our work as healers and our healing relationships in general, which is why I wrote a whole course about it. This is one of my longer posts, so if you'd like a printable version you can get it for free by signing up for my newsletter where you'll gain access to my member's only page full of all sorts of free resources.

image by @korpa

Return to Our Feelings

Paying attention to what my body is feeling-experiencing is a foundational practice in my magickal and spiritual work. Feeling-experiencing is an attempt to describe not only what I'm am conscious that I am feeling on an emotional and physical level, but what I am also experiencing around and within myself from the rushing of my blood, the functioning of my organs or to the other unconscious experiences happening in and around me. Within many forms of modern Paganism, these experiences are codified through the elements, sometimes planetary forces (especially the Moon and Sun), as well as personal relationships between a person and their Holy Ones to help us make sense of the world and find ourselves in it. The body is honored as inherently sacred, as an oracle, and a filter of perception that for often brief but brilliant moments, is able to experience the great expanse of the universe. As I was exposed to more and more esoteric and healing arts as a young Witch I began to understand that many of these practices served a similar purpose: to expand a person's awareness and to change consciousness through acting upon that growing awareness. 

When I began studying astrology I didn't recognize the mindfulness that it had to offer right away. Knowing my sun sign and timing my magick to the phases of the Moon was about as close as I got to the art for many years. Truthfully, I was intimidated by looking at an ephemeris (the charts that show the calculated positions of different celestial bodies like the planets) or a birth chart which looked like a lot of numbers and unfamiliar symbols. Also, astrology seemed to involve a lot of math of which I was never very confident in. 

Then, something magickal happened when I chose to have my chart read for the first time. I was very fortunate to get my chart read by a deep-hearted oracle and suddenly astrology seemed less like an indecipherable game of math and more of a celestial love language meant to grow our inner and outer perceptions. I felt profoundly seen during that reading and through my birth chart - the map of the sky at the very moment of my birth that my curiosity - I overcame my fear just enough that I was able to begin to study medical astrology with an herbal focus. 

One of the unexpected gifts of studying medical astrology and lunar-centered astrology in general was being given a language to talk about the body that respected its wholeness and bridged the experience of our very intimate physical self with the broader celestial turnings of the vastness of consciousness. I wasn't expecting to build a new and kinder way of relating to my body through studying the stars, but it has been a perpetually renewing and unfolding gift. The stories of the stars and planets, the attention to a holistic approach to addressing distress and diseases, along with the very felt sense that there was deep ancestral knowledge being accessed through the birth chart, brought me to a place of feeling of and in my body and being able to express those feelings. It has been endlessly illuminating for which I am endlessly grateful. 

The return to the center of the labyrinth for me was coming to appreciate the sanctuary of self I found when studying the Moon in the birth chart, adding a new layer and depth to my Moon-centered work as a Witch and affirming the holy mystery of the Moon to my Pagan soul. Now, the study of Lunar Returns has added a new, easy to reach for tool in my practice.

image via @korpa

The Moon Illumined Path

The Lunar Return chart, a snapshot of the sky each month when the Moon returns to exact location of your birth, can be seen in some ways as an astrological equivalent of casting a monthly Celtic Cross tarot reading - it highlights obstacles and opportunities, but also does a very good job of making recommendations on how to take care of your emotional, mental, and experiential health. One of the gifts of the Lunar Return chart is that it's only meant to measure the time from one Lunar Return to the next - roughly one month - so it's less about making big calculations and year or multi-year long planning and more about day-to-day, night-to-night life for a short cycle. In his book Lunar Returns, John Townley offers further insight about the wisdom gleaned from the Lunar Return chart:

The challenge in interpreting the Lunar Return is not to plumb its depths for a vast network of details-its life is too short to get bogged down in that-but rather to extract the relevant events and eliminate the blinding chaff, to see through the smoke and dust to the immediate terrain and its possibilities. It's kind of a monthly birthday, and the arrangement of planets it displays reflects the patterns of your coming month. Each month, this "re-birth-day" works out its potential for you and then is renewed once again 27 1/2 days later with a new set of surprises and opportunities. (1)

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the actual day and days surrounding your Lunar Return are celestially attuned for your renewal and restoration, which is what we'll be focusing on in this post.

In our birth charts, the Moon represents the richness of our inner life, our (often invisible) emotional experience of the world, and the truest parts of our story. There is a reason that outward focused, bold, and often performative for better or worse Sun signs have been so focused on in western astrology in the more recent manifestations of the art. The Sun sign, along with the Ascendent or Rising sign, represents the public and productive self which has long been prized in patriarchal and capitalist society especially as compared to the private, often mysterious, definitely untameable, and eternally ebbing and flowing personal self of the Moon. The Sun, when reduced within the confines of such societies, produces eternally at the beck and call of rulers and markets. But the Moon?

The Moon, in their sacred changing, disappearing and re-emergering, reflects to us the wisdom that we are never meant to be always on, always serving, always moving, always doing. With the wisdom of our inner Moon we birth words solely for our own stories, that can never be captured, stolen or translated against us. The Moon sings and speaks that we are meant to rest, to retreat, and find refuge in the sacred dark of possibility. And every month she returns to the spot in the sky where they first gazed down at us at the very moment of our birth, illuminating the next few steps we might take along our path.

Are you feeling this? I hope so. Let's learn how to find your monthly Lunar Return.

image via @korpa

Calculating Your Lunar Return

While you can use an ephemeris and a bit of math to calculate your Lunar Return, the easiest way is to use an online resource like Astrodienst to create a chart for your lunar return or a calculator like the one AstroSeek provides. I like Astrodienst as a resource in general for information on astrology and great free birth and astrological chart services while AstroSeek has a lot of cool calendar options (i.e. you can calculate all of your lunar returns for a year with one click). If you do end up using Astrodienst I highly recommend signing up for a free account because you'll be able to save and store your birth chart (and many more) on the site, which makes calculating your monthly Lunar Return chart much easier. 

Here are the steps for calculating a Lunar Return Chart on Astrodienst.

1. On the homepage click "Free Horoscopes."

2. Under the "Horoscope Drawing Section" click on Extended Chart Selection. At this point you'll be given an option to proceed as a guest user or to register an account. Accounts are free and you can store up to 100 birth charts on their site which comes in handy for keeping the birth charts of your friends and family readily available.

3. Once you're on the "Birth Data Entry" page, enter all of your birth data, and hit continue. Side note: there is a gender selection - you can select the gender you're comfortable with or select "event/other" (which I think limits everything you can do for a chart). For my chart collection, I select the "female" option for everyone so I can access all the chart settings easily. 

4. Now you'll be on the "Extended Chart Selection" page. If you live in a place different than the place of your birth you need to change the location that the chart will be calculated for. In the "Default Settings" section you'll want to click the "modify data" button to change the reference location of your chart to the place that you are currently living.

5. Next, still on the "Extended Chart Selection" page, in "Sections" you can select "Chart Type" and you want to choose "Lunar Return Chart." In the section below "Options for zodiac and houses" you have the option of choosing a house system - if you have a system you prefer choose that - but if you don't have a preference then I recommend "whole signs." The whole signs system is one of the oldest used in western astrology and not only to I find it to be accurate but it's much easier to read than a lot of other styles.

6. Finally, if you have used a site like  AstroSeek to find all of your Lunar Return dates for the year, you can enter the exact date of your Lunar Return that you want to calculate for under "Sections." This is useful if you're looking ahead in time and want to calculate your Lunar Return in future months, otherwise the chart you'll be shown is for the Lunar Return period you are currently in. You'll see an exact date for Lunar Return the chart is calculating for in red on the top left hand side of the generated chart.

7. Once you've made all of your selections on the "Extended Chart Selection" page, you can click the button to show your chart. 

8. Congrats! Your Lunar Return chart is cast!

View fullsize

I've gone ahead and shared with you the sample chart that I use for The Lunar Apothecary to help you see what a Lunar Return Chart looks like. I'll use the Lunar Return Chart sample to highlight the practices I recommend for engaging with your Lunar Return.

image via @korpa

Finding Meaning

Once you have your Lunar Return chart in hand, it is time to read the story of your chart. You can interpret as much or as little in your Lunar Return chart as your heart desires - just remember that it is meant to be a snapshot of time that only lasts a month. For the needs of this tutorial, I'll be focusing on Lunar Return and the Houses and Elements as invitations and monthly recommendations for rest and renewal.

First we want to find the House that the Moon is in as well as the House of Cancer. Looking at your Lunar Return chart, find the Moon and the House that it dwells in. In the Lunar Return chart above, the Moon is in the Fifth House. Where the Moon resides in a Lunar Return chart is where the energies of the Moon will be focused until your next Lunar Return in roughly a month's time. Here, you can reference your favorite astrology book about each house, but I've also given a brief lunar-oriented synopsis below.

A Brief Guide to the Moon in the Houses

The First House: You, individual identity, self-expression, inherent vitality, health constitution, and physical form. The Moon focuses on or reveals how we intuit information as well as how we express what we feel (or want to feel) through our physical appearance. 

The Second House: Material security, money, earnings, and possessions. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we think we need to feel secure and safe in the world. In other words, what it is we need to feel that we have an abundance of or control over to feel like we have worth or value.

The Third House: Learning, education, exchange of information, and social networks. The Moon focuses on or reveals the ways we learn best in order to express ourselves emotionally. Additionally, the Moon focuses on or reveals how we want to be cared for by our social networks or community.

The Fourth House: The home, family, nurturing (or lack thereof) environments. The Moon focuses on or reveals who we are when we feel safe enough to be completely ourselves. Additionally, the Moon highlights emotional patterns and stories from childhood and youth. 

The Fifth House: Creative self-expression, love affairs, children, taking a chance, gambling, and the unexpected nature of living. The Moon focuses on or reveals your inner child, source of spontaneity, joy, and pleasure. In other words, the Fifth House Moon highlights what it is that makes you lose yourself completely to the moment (including canceling plans and overcommitments). 

The Sixth House: Health, day-to-day work, service, responsibilities and duties. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we are called to be of service in the world beyond day-to-day survival. In other words, the Moon illuminates our day-to-day desire to be an agent of change (whether it be change on a personal or global level) and how we act on that desire. 

The Seventh House: One-on-one relationships, primary relationships that influence all areas of life. The Moon focuses on or reveals how you show up to relationships emotionally and how we get our needs met within the complex give-and-take of relating to another. We are shown how we let (or don’t let) ourselves be cared for.

The Eighth House: Desire for emotional security, sex, secret and psychic knowledge, power. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we desire in order to feel emotionally secure and includes our desires for intimacy, including sex, power, secret knowledge, and material wealth. On a deeper level the Moon shows us the impact of our woundedness in our life (how we may learn to heal and be a healer from it). Additionally, the Moon highlights our desire for social and community power. 

The Ninth House: Philosophy, spiritual practice, travel and exploration (both inner and outer), life experience, the unknown. The Moon focuses on or reveals how we engage with the unknown and how we develop our life’s philosophy. In other words, the Moon highlights how we understand and tell the stories of our truth.

The Tenth House: Life calling, career, reputation, ambition, what we feel called to contribute to the world. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we hope to achieve in the world by connecting us to our bliss. In other words, the Moon shows you your unique path to happiness. 

The Eleventh House: Social groups, community, where we feel at home outside of our home, chosen family. The Moon focuses on or reveals how our individual emotional reality is connected to the shared emotional experience of the community at large. The Moon highlights what type of community we need to feel emotionally fulfilled, seen, and held.

The Twelfth House: Unconscious, esoteric studies, dreams and visions, transcendence, spiritual unity, that which happens deep below the surface. The Moon focuses on or reveals our deepest emotional and spiritual yearnings, which are often hidden from us until they are suddenly not. In other words, the Moon in the Twelfth House helps us to discover how to live our own myth.

Looking at our sample chart, the Fifth House represents the pleasures of our life, creating and taking risks that bring us closer to our sense of self, love in its myriad of forms, as well as children and/or your own own inner child. When the Moon returns to your Fifth House, it is a time to center pleasure and joy in your life with a healthy dose of playfulness as tools of self-recognition and emotional expression. You might consider getting in touch or making space for your inner child when making plans (whether social, personal or professional) and taking on projects during this Lunar Return or simply do something that gave you a lot of joy when you were little. 

You'll notice in our sample chart that there are three planets plus the Moon in the Fifth House. When there are three or more planets or lights (i.e. the Moon, Sun, and Ascendent) in a House this is known as a stellium and indicates an area of your life that has a lot of energy focused on it. When a stellium of planets occur in a Lunar Return chart, even if it is not in the House that the Moon is in, pay attention to the area of your life that it is highlighting. For my more experienced astrology practitioners, you can look up what each of these planets bring to the Fifth House, placing more emphasis on the inner planets (remember, we're measuring a short time span here) than the outer planets. 

The other House to pay attention to in a Lunar Return Chart is the House where Cancer sits. This recommendation comes from April Elliot Kent in Astrological Transits and she points out that this is "where in your life you are able to work out some of your emotional challenges this month." (2) Every sign of the zodiac has a Ruling or Domicile - or as I like to call it, a Guardian - Planet which is where a planet is most comfortable and empowered in a chart. It is also the sign which expresses that planet's energy most easily. The Moon is the Guardian Planet of Cancer which is why it can be useful to check out the House where Cancer sits. 

In our sample chart, Cancer sits in the Eleventh House of socializing and social groups. It is the House opposite to the Fifth and in many ways it is in the Eleventh House where the creative and personal work of the Fifth Mansion is translated into public performance, social connections, and sharing. I like to think the while the light of the Lunar Return Moon might be shining in the House that it is transiting in (the Fifth House in the case of our sample chart), that the Moon's light reflects to the House that Cancer sits in, casting some shadows and revealing previous emotional patterns, conflicts, and wisdoms. For our sample chart, I would say that there is an opportunity for healing social wounds - whether that is a time of retreat and emphasis on the self instead the group - and a general reassessment, guided by the Fifth House's emphasis on pleasure and play, with how one shows up in their life. Again, for my more practiced astrologer readers, you can investigate the stories of the other planets and celestial players that show up in the House of Cancer for further insights. 

What if your Moon Sign is in Cancer? In this case, the House that Cancer is in and the Lunar Return Moon House will always be the same. It just means that in some ways your emotional story is fixed on one chapter rather than flipping wildly throughout the book. In many ways, this is pretty Cancerian since this sign is known for its ability to dwell within a particular stretch of memory or emotional experience far more than most other Moon signs. 

Finally, consider the Elemental tone of the Lunar Return Chart. On our sample chart you'll see a small box near the right hand corner with three columns (for Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable which are descriptions of astrological qualities) and four rows (for Fire, Air, Earth, and Water). Look at the row which has the most symbols or astrological glyphs. In the case of our sample chart that is the row of Earth which has four planets, the Moon, and the Ascendant (represented by AC) in signs of Earth. What this tells me is that there is a strong Earth energy happening this Lunar Return which can guide the ways that we choose to take care of ourselves, set boundaries, open up relationships, manifest decisions, and generally go about our lives. Sometimes a chart won't have a strongly manifest elemental tone or two or more elements will be in balance - that is valuable information, too, helping you to pay attention to the elemental energy you might invite into or balance in your life. 

The Elements of the Lunar Return

Earth: An earthy Lunar Return can emphasize the needs of the body and the how your emotions manifest in your life. You might choose to make space for your feelings in a special way on or around the day of your Lunar Return by practicing that which feels comforting and nurturing to your physical self. An earthy Lunar Return can both highlight our physical needs as well as illuminate physical challenges or the manifestation of feelings in our body that need more attention. Asking yourself questions like "Where am I feeling this in my body?" throughout your Lunar Return can be a helpful bit of earthy magick.

Air: A Lunar Return with a lot of air can emphasize the needs of mind, our social needs, and a focus on how we communicate (verbally, textually, visually, emotionally, etc.) ourselves to the world. You might choose to take a much needed break from the busy communication patterns of your life, such as performing a social media pause during or around the day of your Lunar Return. Airy Lunar Returns can highlight our needs for speaking, processing information, and being heard as well as illuminate the challenges of speaking truthfully, kindly, bravely, boldly. Asking yourself questions like "What needs to be said and how do I want to say it?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify what you're trying to communicate during this time. 

Fire: Fiery Lunar Returns can emphasize our creative, action-oriented needs, and the way that we make space for or dismiss our creative impulses and needs. During a fiery Lunar Return you may choose to make space to create - whether returning to a beloved medium of making or trying something completely new. Lunar Returns of Fire can highlight our needs for trusting our pleasures and passions as well as illuminate the ways we deny our creativity whether through comparing ourselves to others or denying our inherently sacred impulse for pleasure. Asking yourself questions like "What do I want to create more of in my life? Less of?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify what you're trying to create over the next month.

Water: Lunar Returns with a lot of Water can emphasize our emotional, deep feeling (or denying of our deep feelings), intuitive, and the difficult to communicate types of felt experiences. During a watery Lunar Return you might choose to make space for more intuitive and esoteric arts from divination to ritual to dreamwork. Lunar Returns of Water can highlight our needs to drift and feel while not being beholden to explain our experiences as well as illuminate our fear of going too far from shore when exploring the complexity of our inner worlds. Asking yourself questions like "How do I feel about this?" and "What do I want to feel more of? Less of?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify the month ahead.

image via @korpa

Putting it All Together

Ok, so you've pulled up your Lunar Return chart (and maybe the Lunar Return charts for the rest of the year if you're really feeling it), found out what House the Moon will be showing up in, found the House of Cancer, and discovered the elemental tone. So, with all that information, how do we synthesize it so that we can transmute knowledge learned into lived wisdom? Here are a few recommendations:

• Mark the day of your Lunar Return in your calendar and try to take some time for yourself - however that feels best to you - on or around that day. I can personally attest to the magick of giving oneself space to be in your Moon and hope you get the opportunity to experience it yourself.

• Write down one or two simple lines about the House that your Lunar Return Moon is showing up in as well as the House of Cancer. It can be something like "The Moon is shining a light on {energies of the House} in my life" for the first and "The shadow of {energies of the House of Cancer} is being illuminated" for the latter. Do the same for your elemental balance.

• If you journal, spend time writing on one or more of the questions offered in the descriptions of elemental tone above. If you cast cards or practice divination, pull a card for the Lunar Return and/or Cancer House as well as one for the Elemental tone.

• If you like, build a Lunar Return altar full of lunar-centered symbols and images, items representing the significant Houses of your Lunar Return chart, along with candles, plants, incense or whatever feels sacred to you. You can even incorporate items to represent any significant Moon phases that'll be happening during your Lunar Return such as a Full or New Moon.

• At the end of one Lunar Return and the start of another, take a moment to reflect on how deeply the energies of the Return was felt (re-read those sentences I suggest you write in the last tip) and spend some time at your altar if you built one. This is a time to check in on yourself and your inner world. It's also an important part of practicing astrology - we need to look back to see how true our observations of our chart rang for us, what maybe didn't make sense when we first looked at our chart that does now, as well as recognizing what we may have overemphasized or missed.

Finally, how might we bring this beautiful inner work into our communities? It can be very sweet to share the dates of Lunar Return amongst your close friends, coven or circle, and maybe even sending each other a supportive message on their Lunar Return day (Or hilarious meme! Or both!). Share with other folks how they can calculate their Lunar Return chart or tell them planetary myths and stories to help them re-member their connection to the vivid vastness of life. Consider the ways you can make more lunar spaces for quiet connection (i.e. community spaces that are geared more towards our introverted selves than our extroverted ones) and why we need more of them. Build and host contemplative lunar altars in public spaces (respecting the land you're on and the people around you). I'm sure many of you are already thinking of ways to bring some Moon magick into your community work - share in the comments below what you're doing.

Time As A Story

Again and again in healing work, whether looking at the stars or sitting with plants, I am reminded that we are engaging with time and space in a new way in order to create change. There are seasonal changes of time that are measured by the movement of the planet, the Sun and Moon and the way that the Earth shifts and changes all around us. But then there is the time that is arbitrary and socially defined - the workday or how long it is appropriate to sleep each night or when we should be "feeling better" - and that is where a lot of healing takes place. We all carry stories of timing in our lives - when we should be successful or have figured out a problem or gotten over our grief. Many of us also carry around shame and feelings of inadequacy with a lot of these time stories.

Through healing work we begin to unpick these stories, listen to the memory of the body which is unconcerned with how we measure time and more concerned with what it is experiencing in the here and now (even when, to our conscious mind, our body still might be reacting to something that already happened-  in cases such as PTSD - or something that has not or may never come to pass as often shows up with different forms of chronic anxiety). 

When we choose to work with the Moon and stars and begin to measure time through the lens of the Birth or Lunar Return chart, we begin to move away from the construct of never-ending linear time that is always moving forward, and find our ways back to a spiralling time that allows us to break free of expectation both personal and cultural. Because the Moon is a cyclical creature, She reminds us that we, too, are cyclical and ever-changing, able to return again and again to wherever we need to be to find healing and wholeness. Time then becomes an ally instead of a relentless taskmaster of "progress" and endless growth. Time becomes more cyclical, seasonal, full of new starts, seeds, and decay, allowing for periods of exuberant output and deep withdrawal and profound transformation. If we are to make this world more just and more kind, we must examine our relationship to time, reshaping it so that time becomes breath easily shared that supports life, instead of a commodity that only a privileged few get to determine the worth of how it should be spent.

I hope that you'll integrate the practice of Lunar Returns into your life, even if it's just to mark on your calendar the day that your Lunar Return is happening and observe it in some sort of way, no preparatory analysis needed. I think it's a rather useful tool of collaborative exploration to be used with clients, covenmates, friends, and family if you're called to share these skills with others. Ultimately, I hope that a gate opens for you, a passage way from one way of being into another that feels more freeing and expansive, that helps you to find yourself more readily, and call yourself home.

Additional Resources

• Lunar Returns by John Townley is one of the only books on the subject. In general, I like Townley’s interpretations and I mostly follow his guidelines for interpreting a Lunar Return chart.

• Astrowiki offers additional information on what to look for in a Lunar Return chart.

• Lunar Return House Positions by Lynn Koiner is a concise and useful introduction to possible manifestations of the energy of whatever House the Lunar Return Moon is transiting to.

• The Astrology Center of America offers a brief but interesting guide to interpreting Lunar Returns.

• Astrological Transits by April Elliott Kent is a great book and while it doesn’t cover Lunar Returns in depth (beyond what I shared on this post), Kent has such an approachable and understandable style of teaching astrology.

If you got through all that and shrugged but still want more lunar magick in your life, I’ve got some resources for you. Naming the Moon to Empower Your Year is one of my favorite practices and here is a full year of New Moon herbal allies, healing rituals, and oracle questions to keep you engaged. Here’s a guide to making herbal medicine by the Moon. But what about witchcraft, you ask. Here, my witch friend, here. And tarot? Here’s a spread for your lunar readings.

Looking for more depth about Lunar Returns? I’ll be creating a longer tutorial for my starry-hearted students over in The Lunar Apothecary.

May the practice of charting your Lunar Returns brings you many an hour of contemplation, new ways to connect with your inner world, and lots of hope.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

(1) Townley, John. Lunar Returns. Llewellyn Publications, 2003. Page 15.